A college education is among the most desired pedigrees in the United States. Not only does it qualify us for the best jobs, make us eligible for graduate training, and, quite often, provide the context for meeting our future spouse, it also admits us to the community of educated men and women. For centuries, that meant being "educated" in the right way: acquiring the knowledge and understanding of an agreed upon set of lofty ideas, classic books, groundbreaking formulas, era-altering histories and sophisticated art. In short, since its inception, universities have been all about content. They have built curricula around solidifying and disseminating a "canon" of cultural literacy -- what should be known by educated people in the West.

That is, until recently.

In February of this year, Harvard University released a report in which it laid out an entirely new general education curriculum that moves away from broad requirements in history, art, literature and mathematics in favor of requirements that facilitate "participation in public life" and that "prepare students to respond critically and constructively to change."

Even more interesting, the report strongly endorses an initiative in activity-based learning in hopes of making salient connections between the classroom and "real-life topics."

The changes, which were approved on May 15, are controversial.

Gone are requirements in specific fields such as history, literature and the arts. Now, students have to fulfill distributions in "Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding" and "The United States in the World." Instead of "Moral Reasoning" under the old core, Harvard students will take classes in "Ethical Reasoning" along with what one might even call a hands-on requirement called "Empirical Reasoning" that helps young people make practical decisions after graduation about such things as "what medical treatments to undergo, when a defendant in court has been proven guilty, whether to support a policy proposal, and how to manage their personal finances." If you are wondering if you read that last phrase correctly, you did.

So, why is Harvard's new core important? For one, Harvard remains this country's most prestigious institution of learning, and for better or worse, its programs, policies and curricula are a bellwether for American higher education. In fact, when Harvard established its General Education requirement of broad discipline-based classes in the mid-1940s, it became the standard for pretty much every university in the United States. To be sure, when Harvard revisits its curriculum, others will as well. This means that new core requirements at Harvard and elsewhere will affect what future generations of college graduates know and what we expect them to know.

Additionally, though a few other universities have recently rethought their core curriculum, it has taken Harvard to validate those decisions and to move this conversation into public debate. For example, our local institution, the University of San Francisco, was ahead of Harvard here, but it has gone largely unnoticed. In 2002, we completely revamped our core curriculum, moving from a cultural-literacy "content-based" curriculum to one that focuses on "learning outcomes." Like Harvard, we became less interested in ensuring that students know a canon and more committed to making sure students know how to do history, economics, science and literature so that they can be smart, engaged, critical readers of any text, canonical or not. It would be difficult to argue that USF's core curriculum influenced Harvard, but the two plans are enough alike to suggest a tide is turning. Yale and the University of Texas have also recently modified their core curriculum.

Lastly, parents of future college students and students themselves should be aware of the kinds of conversations going on at major universities about what constitutes "education." I predict that fewer and fewer universities will cling to the old-school general education plans that seek to instill a prescribed menu of what-should-be-known in favor of more skills-based classes that facilitate civic-engagement. For instance, USF's new core curriculum includes a requirement in service learning. That concept here or at Harvard would have been unthinkable 20 years ago.

Some may lament the apparent demise of a pedagogy of master texts and precious ideas, but, a dynamic, nimble curriculum better equips the next generation of leaders to deal with the rapid advances in technology, the growing instability of global politics and the unpredictable demands of a diverse American populace. An education that looks forward and outward is, at its core, democratic, and ultimately, democracy should be the core value of American higher education.